Friday, 28 January 2011

The Meaning of the Gulf Oil Spill - A Message For Our Time

The Gulf oil spill has affected people everywhere, not just those living in close proximity. Everywhere, concerned citizens of the planet are not only questioning what the owners of the exploded rig can now do to stop the ever increasing spillage, but also how such a thing could happen and at what cost to the ecology and life of a vast area.

What follows is a message for our time, specifically about the need to form a new relationship with the Earth.

There is a vast and unknown terrain that falls between the human level of understanding and that of the Divine Oneness. From the spiritual realms comes the understanding that the message of life out of balance is being forcefully conveyed through this event to planetary consciousness, and it is this message more than any other that is coming forth.

The message of the Gulf Oil spill is one of endangerment - endangerment and the need to set things right. The planetary sensibility concerning things proceeding as usual is upset by the unforeseen and ongoing destruction to the ecology of a large and sacred portion of the oceanic area which will not be able to recuperate any time soon. Mankind's consciousness is deeply affected by this 'mishap'. They feel it is wrong without knowing how or why. Out of this sense of wrongness and endangerment shall come a new push toward rectifying past errors which have created other similar catastrophes, but not before more damage is done to the exquisitely balanced planetary ecology that applies to all habitats, both oceanic, coastal, and land-based.

This mishap was not intentional as we commonly understand intention. And yet it grew out of the relative indifference to the motivation of care for the potential upset to an ecological system, when weighed against the need for petrol dollars and the need to maintain company finances.

One cannot hold just the owners or managers of the rig to blame, however. One must hold the entire cultural context in which the Earths' needs have not been given the highest priority to blame. Such an imbalance has set man's own possessiveness and acquisitory impulses as well as fear of deprivation as the highest priority, and the needs of the Earth as a much lower level priority.

While it is true that this balance has been shifting over recent decades, it is no where near the level of equality and conscious intentionality that would make out of corporate policy and practice a new being. This is yet to come. Out of the pain that this tragedy is causing to the Earth, out of the questions that it is evoking within human consciousness, shall grow a steadier movement toward balance and respect for the Earth that has not yet taken place.

When the Earth becomes part of one's self, then, and only then, will the correct balance be achieved that will ensure that all shall take place with the respect and care that it must, and not with the present idea of 'having' and 'getting' being uppermost in people's minds. This transition is taking place through pain and loss and shall continue to do so until the shift in perception toward Unity is more established, and one cannot harm the Earth without harming oneself at the same time.

To help move consciousness further toward the end of greater balance and unity, see One World Meditationsand other spiritual resources available at Pathways of Light. Julie Redstone is a teacher, writer, and founder of Light Omega, a center for spiritual teaching and healing in Western Massachusetts. The purpose of Light Omega is to create an understanding of the sacred transition into light that the Earth is presently going through.